Local Call for social justice, relying on readers
Local Call’s critical journalism tells the stories of marginalized communities in Israel and brings the reality of the occupation to Hebrew audiences write Jacqui Park and Eden Vered
Since 2014, Hebrew language Local Call has aimed to fill the gap in reporting on the Israeli-occupied territories for local audiences. “Hebrew media outlets are lacking in this field,” Co-Executive Director Haggai Matar says,.“Israeli audiences really need to understand what the occupation is about — coverage in Hebrew is often either very minimal, or very distorted.”
The name is a pun on the decade old +972 magazine, founded by Israeli and Palestinian journalists who felt critical analysis of the the conflict was missing for a global audience. +972 (named for Israel’s international dialling code) , along with Just Vision and Activestills launched Local Call, hoping to reach at least 50,000 readers in its first year.
“We realized we didn’t want this site to just be about the occupation,” says Matar, “But to broaden it to social justice issues in general, and tell the stories of marginalized communities within Israel that don’t get represented.” Shortly after the launch, the 2014 Gaza War (Operation Protective Edge) broke out, putting demand for Hebrew coverage to the test: “People would tell us that we are the only Hebrew source reporting on what’s happening inside Gaza,” says Matar.
“We reached half a million readers within four months.”
Bridging the gaps
With eight staffers and a wide network of paid freelancers, Local Call continues to fill critical information gaps in local coverage seven years later, while holding the national mainstream media to account: “Having our reporters on the ground means we get the facts right,” says Matar.
“We’ve had quite a few events where we were able to bring eyewitness testimonies or videos to prove coverage in the national mainstream media was wrong or misleading. Sometimes this leads them to change their headlines. Other times it could lead to deep collaborations.”
Before the pandemic began, Israeli Public Broadcaster Kan 11 collaborated with Local Call on a four month investigation into organized crime in the Arab society within Israel. The reporting challenged racist descriptions of Arab society as inherently violent to show how organized crime was preying on innocent civilians who deserve protection. .“Crime in the Arab society is regularly portrayed as ‘random violence between Arabs’,” says Matar, “They have a much higher murder rate than the jewish society.
“But it’s actually very systematic — syndicate rivalries trying to take control over municipal funds, for example,” he says. “The police either ignore or collaborate. So exposing that reframed the conversation.”
The investigation was also published in Arabic in the leading Arab48. “This is very rare. You won’t ever find stories in Israel that are published both by sites like Arab 48 — which is a very oppositional, independent, Palestinian oriented site in Arabic — and the Israeli Public Broadcaster.”
In a “huge victory for our journalism” according to Matar, in elections this year, this framing was adopted “even by right wing leaders such as Gideon Sa’ar and Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged to fight organized crime and protect Arab citizens.”
From Hebron to Tel Aviv, “we cover different localities, but not on a municipal scale,” says Matar. “For example we have an ongoing project about evictions across the country, or sometimes we just cover a peripheral local struggle the mainstream media isn’t paying attention to.”
According to Matar, this shows clear spikes of new readers from the reported localities. “Obviously not all those readers will stick around,” he says “but the goal is that gradually they will learn about our other reports.”
Business model
Until launching its membership program in 2020, Local Call relied on institutional foundations and one-off small scale donations from readers and private donors. “We have 30 to 40 people that give between 2,000 and 50,000 dollars a year,” says Matar.
“We’ve been much more intentional in the past few years in reaching out to people who send a $5,000 check. We start a conversation, build a relationship with them.”
But donations are not enough. “This has been a rough year (2020),” says Matar, “We hear from some of the readers who say they would love to join but can’t offer us financial stability, because they fear for their own”.
Seeking advice on how to develop a successful membership program, the team turned to Membership Puzzle, a public research project offering news organizations insight on how to turn supporters into members to sustain their journalism.
The membership program has a pay-what-you-can strategy, and has so far garnered monthly support from 500 readers, with an average monthly contribution of $22. Members get access to things like behind-the-scenes insight and webinars, and Local Call is able to to keep its content free.
While Local Call had been exploring a membership model since 2017, the existential uncertainty of the pandemic experience “fast tracked the process, offering it more context.”
“It pushed us to recognize we need this stability and other sources of income. We need to explain to our readers that this is the way to support us and make us sustainable, independent, and less reliant on very rich private donors,” he concluded, “Our dream is to really rely on our readers.”
Having a compelling story and product is important. According to Matar, Local Call is unique in that it has a “very specific and stated agenda that we oppose the occupation and support social justice. These are very clear positions and that allows us in our fundraising not only to tap into resources that value independent journalism and freedom of speech but also to appeal to people who think that yes, you need to oppose occupation and are convinced by our change is one way to do it”.
Eden Vered is an IPI contributor based in Vienna.
Jacqui Park is head of network strategy and innovation for IPI and a senior fellow at the Centre for Media Transition at the University of Technology, Sydney.
This story is part of the IPI global network report: Around the corner, around the world: How local news media around the world are rethinking everything
